Small Get Together Ideas/Themes:

  • Happy Hour: Invite a few friends over and create a small Charcuterie board for each one, so you are not sharing food. Create a signature non-alcoholic drink for your friend group.  Set tv tray’s outside 6 feet apart.  Ask everyone to bring 5 questions to ask each other that range from surface to deeper.  Choose one or two friends you do not know as well to get to know better.
  • Sunset Search: Choose one friend and go in search of the best sunset. Find places in Charlotte that offer places to just experience the sunset. Work on your photography skills but also take time to just breathe in the moment.  Set one night a week to do your search. Add a sunrise monthly!
  • Karaoke Night:  Invite a small group of friends to astound each other with your karaoke skills.  Provide prizes for various categories.  
  • Battle of the Bands:  Set up a concert with a group of friends that have bands and offer them space to compete or play for others.
  • Chopped Food Contest: Choose 4 ingredients and make an appetizer/meal or dessert with friends. Make it at home and send pictures to a third party to vote. Have your family vote on a scorecard.  
  • Pen Pal Party:   Pull together friends from all over the country. Camp friends, school friends, cousins, family friends. Have a quarterly game night online using Jack Box Games…..but with a little extra.  The first night, do some sharing. Start by giving everyone 30 seconds to tell their story. Everyone brings a friend that has agreed to be a pen pal for someone they don’t know. Throw the names in the chat and tell about your person. As a group, consider who might connect best with this friend of a friend.
  • Yoga Class: Invite one of our leaders to lead your friends in an outdoor or online yoga class. Paige Bundon (bundonp@gmail.com) can lead your group for a $
  • Front Porch Concert: Invite a friend who is a singer/guitar player to come and provide a concert. Encourage someone who is just learning to try out some of their music with you. Provide individual snacks and individual drinks for refreshments. Ask everyone to leave their phone in a basket until the concert is done. Just invite them to be present.
  • Laine Mansfield (lainemansfield@icloud.com) or Hailey Brasser (704- 621-2128), both youth in high school would be willing to provide one for $50.  Cameron Moore is $250 for a concert.
  • Christmas Cookie Exchange: Instead of making cookies together, have everyone make cookies and wrap them individually.  Encourage friends to choose a family cookie or one that reminds them of Christmas. Exchange recipe cards and have each person go around and share why this cookie reminds them of the holidays or invite them to share their favorite Christmas memory.
  • Charlotte Top 10: Choose 10 restaurants around Charlotte that are your favorite or create a list of 10 restaurants you have never been to in Charlotte. Compare lists with your friends and create a bucket list.  Order take-out from a restaurant every month. Write a review of the food and share with others.
  • Images of Charlotte: Take an afternoon to find iconic places around charlotte to photograph. Take a group of friends or do it individually. Meet up online later after you have edited your pictures and share an image from each site. You can choose the same locations like the Firebird downtown or the best stature and let everyone decide!
  • Take a day to get the best skyline photo of Charlotte: Skyline Photo: https://www.ourstate.com/where-to-take-the-best-pictures-of-charlotte-skyline/
  • Movie Night: Ask your adult advisors which movies they think you should see before you graduate high school. Bring that list to your group of friends and watch trailers to determine the Top 5 that want to see. Make a bucket list of movies for your group. Make some agreements for movie night (e.g. mno phones for the movie).  Find 5 famous quotes from the movie prior to watching and and try to look for them. Get points for each one you find. After watching, talk about the movie and what it has to say to your generation. What lessons do you learn from it?  *Put your movie bucket list on a Pinterest board for everyone.
  • Book Club: Choose a book every quarter to read with friends. Invite the author to join you! They just might! Read and reflect on what you learned. Rules for book club: You have to read the book! 😊 Choose people you don’t know very well to join your book club (e.g. someone from class that is smart and you thought you might be friends in a non-covid time, someone from church you wish you knew better, and then two friends who are on the fringe)  Make sure everyone is a reader. Put it out that you are starting a book club and see who is interested! You could do this on Zoom and include friends all over the country!
  • Family or Friends Photo Shoot:  Plan ahead to coordinate outfits, lighting, and location.  Have friends take turns being the photographer. Take a front porch picture with all the things you found you could not live without in 2020. Offer to take pictures of families around you!
  • Picnic at the Mint Museum on Randolph:  Ask each friend to bring an item to share for the feast.  Pack a blanket, chairs, and outdoor games (Bocce ball, spike ball, etc.)
  • Create Care Package:  Make care packages for college friends and loved ones far away.  Write hand written notes and bake cookies or buy small treasures to send. 

Classes:

  • Skill Pop Classes https://www.skillpop.com/classes
  • Sweet Spot Studio Charlotte (Baking Classes https://sweetspotstudioclt.com)
  • Doodling Night with Chandler Guess (jcguess@gmail.com).  ONLINE EVENT ($10 for each person, 50 min)
  • Charlotte Center for Mindfulness:  Take a mindfulness class with your friends.  Michelle can lead one for you during exam week or Sign up for Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Class together.  https://www.ccmindful.org/online-offerings.html 
  • Yoga Class: Invite one of our leaders to lead your friends in an outdoor or online yoga class. Paige Bundon (bundonp@gmail.com) can lead your group for a fee.$
  • Out School online classes outschool.com  Learn to bullet journal, play guitar, code, etc.
  • Brakes Driving School https://putonthebrakes.org.  Learn defensive driving skills.
  • Candle making at Paddywax Candle bar in South end or take a virtual class with your friends! https://thecandlebar.co/pages/virtual-workshops

Holiday Festivities

Service Opportunities 

(These agencies are currently working with volunteers and accept individual volunteers and teens)

  • HopeMatch   www.hopematch.org
  • Baby Bundles  www.babybundles.org
  • Second Harvest Food Bank  www.secondharvestmetrolina.org
  • Samaritans Purse  www.samaritanspurse.org
  • Loaves and Fishes Food Drive: Nov. 22, Dec. 20, Feb 6.  
    • Get 2-3 friends together and pick up bags from Harris Teeter. Staple a note to the bag about the food drive at MPPC (on website). Drop off bags and add a note that you will pick up on Nov. 21, Dec. 19 or Feb. 5 (depending on your time available). Go back by and pick up. (Wear gloves and masks). Bring to the church for the parking lot food drives.
    • Set up a spot at your school to drop off food over a 2 hour block. Get permission from the administration first. Spread the word to all clubs, teams, SGA, teachers to share with classes. Get others on your team to spread the word and let them know you will be at the school. Sit 10 feet from the boxes or just open your trunk and put a sign to put the food in the boxes in your car. Enjoy sitting together with friends.
  • More Opportunities to serve added every week on the Outreach page of the church: https://myersparkpres.org/2020/03/outreach-community-response/

Online Games/Apps with Friends

  • Among Us
  • Psych
  • Heads Up
  • Jack Box games
  • Scribblio online

Crafts

  • Latch Hook Rugs (great for middle schoolers, buy on Amazon)
  • Knitting classes http://www.charlotteyarn.com
  • Design your own t-shirt at zazzle.com
  • Tye-Dye or reverse tye dye party.

Outings